Lucy Phillips | 3 August 2011
MPs today warned that cuts to the UK armed forces could hamper defence capability and commitments after 2015.
The defence select committee said the military might already be falling below capacity to fulfil their commitments – ‘let alone the tasks they are likely to face between 2015 to 2020 when it is acknowledged that there will be capability gaps’.
The government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review, published in October, outlined plans to cut the military budget by 7.5% over five years. This includes a 10% reduction in personnel and the cancellation of key equipment such as the Nimrod MRA4 aircraft.
Select committee chair James Arbuthnot said: ‘This is a clear example of the need for savings overriding the strategic security of the UK and the capability requirements of the armed forces. The government needs to outline its plans to manage the gap left by the loss of these capabilities and lay out detailed plans for their regeneration.’
The MPs say they have ‘serious concerns’ over the realisation of ‘Future Force 2020’ – the government’s vision for the UK military from 2020, particularly given it has been called an ‘aspiration’ rather than policy. The report recommends that the Ministry of Defence introduces longer-term, ten-year budgets to aid with planning.
Arbuthnot added: ‘Decisions for post-2015 funding will have to be made in the very near future to ensure progress towards Future Force 2020. If the ambition of a real-terms funding increase is not realised, we will have failed our armed forces.’
A fortnight ago Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced £3bn of additional funding for equipment to help meet the Future Force 2020 proposals. Today Fox said: ‘Our future equipment programme is no longer an unfunded aspiration but one that provides real money for real equipment.
‘We continue to have the fourth largest military budget in the world and the SDSR has put defence back on a stable footing with highly capable armed forces and certainty for our personnel and their families.
‘I am pushing through radical reform to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.’
Chief of the defence staff general Sir David Richards added: ‘The SDSR was based on an assessment of the threats we face now and in the future. We have had to take some tough decisions, but as we move towards Future Force 2020 we will remain a formidable fighting force on the world stage.’
